As Thursday's NBA trade deadline approached, Toronto Raptors president and general manager Bryan Colangelo wasn't planning to have any major additions to his lineup.

"We're still working on a few things, mostly small," Colangelo said Wednesday before the Raptors faced Chicago. "Not a lot of major significant things."

Quote:

"We've talked about this rebuilding process," he said. "We've got a plan in place we're talking about bringing in young players, bringing in young assets, creating more flexibility as much as possible so we can be a player in free agency.

"We did not want to compromise that situation. There have been some deals from the start of the season to now even that probably would have made us more competitive by now.

"There was a commitment to being patient, letting the young guys develop and come along. We feel like we're accomplishing a lot of that. We've got the stages of this development happening and we've made tangible progress."

He said if he had done a deal to bring "more veteran talent to put us in a playoff competitive environment and yet kept us in neutral so to speak" it would have hampered the plan.

Add to that the Raptors' own high draft pick this year and the salary cap flexibility that has been achieved.

"It's all kind of set up for this next jump but there's some painful steps along the way and we're experiencing that with the win-loss record," said Colangelo.

Tough to be confident about Bayless when he probably had his worst game as a Raptor yesterday. He frankly looks lost out there ... looks like he's losing his confidence.
Still a young guy ... lets see what he brings next year as our back-up. If he continues to play like shit ... it will be time for him to go.

it's not only about bayless.
last season BC bring amir and weems + DD, and we see now that at least two of them can be here for a long time.
this season BC bring here Dosey, Wright, ajinca, bayless and now james jones + alabi and ed davis.
=> Alabi is a raw prospect, maybe in 5 years we will se what he can bring (like bargs)
=> Ajinca, if he stay and develop his defense, will be a great backup center with his size.
=> Bayless has a injure season, so i don't care his skill this year. we will see next season what he can do with a real training camp and a better chemistry.
=> JJonhson shows yesterday that he can be our SF agressive and energy player who can defend and block shot. but can he do that against all the SF in the league ?
=> Dorsey had show us that he is a solid 3rd PF who can defend as well as amir. he is less scorer, but he has some nice game.
=> Wright. i like the guy. like JJ he brings some times energy and some D more than weems or DD at the wings.
=> ED is our futur PF. like DD last season he just learn this year how to be in the league, and must learn fast. so i see a great futur here for him, if he will consider Toronto as his new home for at least 7 years.

in all of this youngs, i'm wondering how many will be here next season :
expirings : ajinca, weems, dorsey and wright.

if BC brings some other youngs like these ones (2 or 3 years in the league, who don't have lay much) i hope he will find some who can carry this team forward.

i think this strategy is the good one. because FA are tough to bring here, and draft is just luck. so bring here some youngs who are hungry for minutes, and who can show you how they have telent and nobody use it, it's not a bad thing.

my concern about this si that only two teams have turned around their younger roster :
OKC and portland. we can add phily, but it's all.

so tor, clipps, min for now have not be able to do the same. so lets hope this strategy can work out.

Bayless has been injured since coming here, and is currently inujured according to Triano. So i'll reserve judgment on him. But right now i'm liking the young players we have and the direction we're going and if we can add a top 3 pick in the summer and add a key player or two via trade and/or signing, we should be on our way to getting better starting next season.

Sorry, but what aren't you sold on with Davis? He isn't close to physical maturity or health really and has a better understanding of defense and I'll argue rebounding than Amir does right now.

Davis with a little fine tuning on his offensive game could become a far better player than Amir.

Davis has been in the league what 3 months vs Amir who took 5 years to do anything near what Davis already does. IMO there is no doubt that at some point soon enough Davis will be our fulltime starting PF, hopefully next season after he adds a bit of weight.

Davis needs to add weight and strength, but a jump shot would give him more playing time. Amir would to the banging down low, and Davis with the 12-15 ft jumper. Give me a front court of Amir, Davis, and James Johnson, and the defense and rebounding would be set.

Davis has been in the league what 3 months vs Amir who took 5 years to do anything near what Davis already does. IMO there is no doubt that at some point soon enough Davis will be our fulltime starting PF, hopefully next season after he adds a bit of weight.

Not really a fair comparison.

Amir came right out of high school and was buried on the bench of a perenial 50 win team and title contender in Detroit behind the Wallace's, McDyess, Maxiell, Webber et al.

Davis is a guy who's dad played in the NBA, came from a well-coached collegiate program and has been given consistent minutes right away.

The improvement in Amir's game from last year to this year has been pretty remarkable and there's room for even more improvement, combined with the fact that he's only two years older than Davis and I think your selling him a little short.

Amir came right out of high school and was buried on the bench of a perenial 50 win team and contender in Detroit behind the Wallace's, McDyess, Maxiell, Webber et al.

Davis is a guy who's dad played in the NBA, came form a well-coached collegiate program and has been given important minutes right away.

The improvement in his game from last year to this year has been pretty remarkable and there's room for even more improvement, combined with the fact that he's only two years older than Davis and I think your selling him a little short.

Yeah i agree with all of that. I was basically just saying that Davis in 3 months has shown a lot imo. Don't get me wrong i like Amir a lot, but my point was he's been in the league 5 years vs Davis 3 months. I just think Davis has more upside. Not sure how much better Amir can be while Davis imo has a higher ceiling. To me he's a 10reb/2.5bpg player waiting to happen. He just needs to add 15lbs and improve his 10-16ft shot/FT's. I'm very excited to see what he can do in the next few years.

Sorry, but what aren't you sold on with Davis? He isn't close to physical maturity or health really and has a better understanding of defense and I'll argue rebounding than Amir does right now.

Davis with a little fine tuning on his offensive game could become a far better player than Amir.

Could be. just havent seen anything to really show me that yet.

And in regards to having a better understanding of defense, i remember watching Amir in Detroit and when he was there the understanding of defense he showed there was leagues better than it is even now.

Maybe he'll be as great as Rapfans want to beleive, but I dont know. on the fence a bit, but maybe he'll be a very solid piece moving forward, maybe he'll come of the bench for his entire career.

Yes hes young, yes he's going to make mistakes but come on... last night he was terrible... he seems selfish at times trying to get his, makes bad decisions and turns the ball over and looks lost out there...

And jeffB ... your still all over trading Calderon yet he's been amazing this year (minus the shooting slump)... he's an assist machine... hes finnaly healthy and almost averageing a double double as a starter this year...(9.7points - 9.2 assists)

What more do you want from your point guard thats not the franchise?

And you have to admit his defence has been better this season then previous seasons...

Bayless has been injured since coming here, and is currently inujured according to Triano. So i'll reserve judgment on him. But right now i'm liking the young players we have and the direction we're going and if we can add a top 3 pick in the summer and add a key player or two via trade and/or signing, we should be on our way to getting better starting next season.

I understand if he can't score while injured or play d(not saying he doesn't) but decisions are not affected by injury and that's why he's playing like a sack of shit which would actually be a compliment